June 2026 saw a record-breaking surge in US high-grade bond sales, largely driven by significant offerings from Elon Musk's SpaceX and chipmaking giant Nvidia. SpaceX sold $25 billion of investment-grade bonds on Tuesday, June 24, as the final step to replace costly debt. This refinancing included debt from Musk's 2022 acquisition of X (formerly Twitter) and the loans and bonds issued by his artificial intelligence lab xAI last year, which faced a rapid cash drain. Notably, this move allowed SpaceX to cut its annual interest burden despite adding billions in debt to its empire.
SpaceX's bond sale was preceded by its debut high-grade bond offering, which kicked off on June 22. This massive borrowing spree was initiated to fund the company's ambitious AI plans following its record $75 billion IPO earlier in the month. The company garnered immense investor interest, with demand reaching $89 billion for its $20 billion to $25 billion offering. This enabled SpaceX to refinance a $20 billion bridge loan that had been used to pay off approximately $17.5 billion of high-interest junk debt from X and xAI, effectively converting temporary financing into permanent capital market debt. The bond sale is expected to reduce the consolidated Musk empire's annual interest payments to $1.5 billion from a previous $1.8 billion for a smaller debt load.
Nvidia, joining the AI borrowing frenzy, also contributed significantly to the June bond record. On June 15, Nvidia sold $25 billion of high-grade bonds, which was its first offering since 2021. The initial target for this offering was around $20 billion but was increased due to strong investor demand, attracting as much as $85 billion in orders – more than three times the size of the bond. Both companies' successful bond sales highlight the strong investor appetite for opportunities in the artificial intelligence sector and demonstrate the ability of major tech players to access capital markets for large-scale funding needs.
